Greater Magadha

[1] It refers to the non-Vedic political and cultural sphere that developed in the lower Gangetic plains (modern day Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh), east of the Vedic heartland and roughly corresponding to the region of the later Magadha empire.

Bronkhorst does not specify the exact limits or provide a map but refers to the “region east of the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā” and “the geographical area in which the Buddha and Mahāvīra lived and taught” as Greater Magadha.

Vedic religion, which placed a lot of importance on the system of ritual correctness, arose out of the culture of the erstwhile Kuru and Panchala realms.

while the Śramaṇa tradition, which placed emphasis on the spiritual works,[6] that developed in Greater Magadha, later to gave rise to non-Vedic (non-Brahmanical) religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivika, Ajñana and the atheist ideology of Lokāyata (Charvaka).

Wynne proposes an alternative view that unorthodox Brahmin thinkers in the eastern region developed these ideas, triggering the ascetic and philosophical culture Bronkhorst associates with Greater Magadha.

The spread of the Vedic culture in the late Vedic period . Aryavarta was limited to northwest India and the western Ganges plain, while Greater Magadha in the east was occupied by non-Vedic Indo-Aryans. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The location of shakhas is labeled in maroon.